Even Heroes Bleed
by killwassouf
Summary: Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru in the Second Shinobi War. It wasn't all sunshine and butterflies in Ame.
1. Tsunade

**So yeah, my first...thing. Feedback is much appreciated.**

 **I don't own Naruto.**

It rains so hard in Ame, Tsunade marvels that it doesn't wash everything away. She wishes it would; with each split neck, slit throat, and strangled scream, she can feel Jiraiya's facade grow louder and more jarring, Orochimaru become more reserved and withdrawn. She hurts for what this war has done to herself and to her village, but above all, she hurts for what it has done to her boys, and even as the rain pounds them into the gore-soaked earth, she begs for more to wipe them clean. But, Tsunade muses, blood runs thicker than water.

To her left, Jiraiya stirs, and with all the subtlety of one of his toad summons downing a barrel of sake, lets loose a yawn that she hopes the Ame squad they are trailing will mistake for a rumble of thunder. "What is HQ thinking, anyways?" he grumbles, almost cheerfully enough for the untrained observer to mistake as normal. But Tsunade is anything but untrained, and she sees the weary lines on his face and sallow bags under his eyes for what they are. "Sending the three of us to take on fifty Ame guys? They should've left the snake bastard at home, he's just gonna get in our way, eh, Tsunade?" He sends a lewd wink her way that once might have cost him a trip to the Konoha hospital to restructure his skull. Now, Tsunade can only long for those days.

Orochimaru doesn't move, but he deigns to hiss back: "Idiot. They're going to hear you if you keep talking that loudly."

Jiraiya laughs heartily at this. Tsunade wonders if Orochimaru can hear the pain in the chuckles that sound so harsh and discordant to her. "These guys couldn't beat us if-"

He's interrupted by shouts of anger as the camp below hears him. The cries quickly shift to fear as the three of them jump down from their tree and are recognized. Tsunade's blood chills as she realizes that some of the screams of terror belong to children - no more than twelve years old.

"Well," Jiraiya announces with false cheer, "here goes nothing."

The screams soon shift again, from fear to agony, and then die out entirely.

* * *

She's healing Jiraiya now. Nothing serious, no more than a freak injury, because he's right; no combination of Ame nin short of Hanzo himself can hope to do much more than slow down the three of them.

"Embarrassing, really," he's rambling, and she wants nothing more than for him to just _shut up_ for once, because really, she's not stupid, she can hear how broken he is and it has nothing at all to do with his flesh wound, but he's continuing, "Getting hurt is for sissies, how was _I_ supposed to know my Rasengan would blow him up like a grenade and send little skeleton-pieces back at me? That is such bullshit, probably the worst way to go really. You better not tell anyone about this, fucker," he shouts at Orochimaru, "I'm never gonna live this down-"

And just like she knew it would, his voice chokes off and his head bows, and all she can do is smile fondly at him because of course Jiraiya would be the one to try to bluster his way through this with just his words.

Jiraiya looks up at her and she's not sure if it's rain or tears or blood that's streaming down his face as he whispers, "Tsunade. They're using _kids_ now?"

He searches her face and waits for her to deny it, but all she can think of is Nawaki and the other genin back home, and she just doesn't have the tools to deal with this, so she does the only thing she can do. She brings her glowing green hand up to his face, and a genjutsu later, Jiraiya is asleep at her feet. Orochimaru stands a few feet away, silent and impassive, and Tsunade wants to scream until the madness is over.

 **Planning on continuing the angst, but no promises, I'm a lazy guy. Thanks for reading.**


	2. Jiraiya

**Ok, so here's the updated dealio as to what this is going to be. I didn't really have anything in mind when I started writing this, I just didn't want to study for finals so I popped something out real quick. So I'll write two more quickies from Jiraiya and Orochimaru's POVs, and then I'll decide from there whether I want to leave it as a pointless threeshot or expand into a real story.**

 **I don't own Naruto.**

Jiraiya is excited when he first hears about the war. Jump-up-and-down-like-a-little-kid-on-Christmas excited, if he's going to be honest with himself, because what's not to love, really? Fighting against chumps like Ame, Suna, and Iwa, not to mention all the war stories he'd be able to tell to the ladies back home after mopping the floor with them. But it's been a few days now, and a few days in Ame may as well be a few _decades_ because of the insufferable, neverending rain. Not only is it bitchin' cold, it's got Tsunade all bundled up in a cloak, and more clothes for Tsunade can never mean anything good as far as he's concerned. He tried mentioning this to her a day or two ago, but he'd ended up plastered to a tree, and he's not even going to try breaching the subject with Orochimaru. Asexual freak.

He speeds up from the steady gait he's been using to trail the other fifteen shinobi in his regiment to fall in line with his teammates. "Oy," he says cheerily, making sure to throw in a cheeky nudge for Orochimaru. Bastard pretends to hate physical contact, but Jiraiya's confident he secretly yearns for his touch. Everyone else does, right? "When do you guys suppose we're gonna get some action up in this bitch? Sensei promised me action, you heard him say that, didn't you?" He pokes Orochimaru's cheek for emphasis.

Orochimaru stiffens. "Get back in formation, you lumbering donkey."

Ah, Orochimaru. Jiraiya smiles beatifically at him. Such a way with words, that boy has. Seems he's not the only one with that sentiment though, as their jonin commander hollers back: "Jiraiya! Get back in formation or I'll have your ass for dinner!"

Chortling at the thought of how sinfully tasty his ass would be if they really were to have it for dinner, Jiraiya is starting to slow down to return to his position when the world explodes into purple mist. It's eerily quiet for an instant, then all is black, then red.

"What the fuck," he shouts at Orochimaru. "What did I tell you about having your snake eat us without our explicit permission?"

"Shut up," Tsunade growls, and that's when Jiraiya realizes something is horribly, horribly wrong because since when does Tsunade talk like that and _not_ punch him in the face? "Use your head for once, will you?" Her face is a mask of concentration as she continues: "Any longer out there and we'd be dead. We'd _still_ be dead if I hadn't trained so much to extract his poison." She breaks off as her chakra flares, and Jiraiya's vision clears.

"Hanzo, then," he says grimly, then grins. "Well what are we waiting for? Let's go kick some ass!"

Orochimaru looks at him in that long-suffering way of his. "Manda's tunneling us away as we speak."

Jiraiya's jaw drops. "You can't be serious. We've got thirteen teammates back there!" He turns to Tsunade. "We have to go back, right?"

But Tsunade averts her eyes. Refuses to look at him. "Jiraiya. They're dead. We got ambushed. We were lucky to have any survivors."

She leaves out the last part, but Jiraiya can hear it from both of them as clearly as if they're screaming it. _It may have been your fault_.

 **Review or whatever, yeah?** Cheers!


	3. Orochimaru

**So I dunno if I feel like turning this into an actual thing. I guess if anyone wants me to, I will, but it's not like I expect anyone to really read this, so eh.**

 **I don't own Naruto.**

Shinobi don't talk easily. So when the three of them capture their first jonin commander, Jiraiya is predictably confused as to how to proceed, and even Tsunade looks a little lost. Orochimaru sighs; internally, of course; he learned long ago how to hide himself from the outside world, because emotions are weakness. This is why Jiraiya and Tsunade, for all their skill, will never attain absolute power. It's also why he's going to have to take the lead here, despite the fact that it will further widen the rift between him and his teammates.

"A jonin from Iwa," Orochimaru drawls almost lazily. "He almost certainly has information we need." Hopefully that's enough for Tsunade to get the hint, at least; Jiraiya will probably have to be beaten over the head, both literally and figuratively. But even Tsunade seems frozen with indecision at this new situation.

The Iwa shinobi struggles against the snakes binding him to the tree and growls, "I'll never talk, Konoha fuckers. You may as well kill me now."

 _Well, at least someone gets it_ , Orochimaru thinks idly as Tsunade seems to come to a decision. She takes a deep breath and fixes Orochimaru with a deep stare. "I'll get it out of him. Me alone."

Orochimaru tunes out the inane drivel that Jiraiya immediately starts babbling and looks back at Tsunade. He's amused, but also a little touched at her attempt to defend her teammates, to prevent Jiraiya from being conquered by darkness and him from conquering it.

"...pretty please with a cherry and whipped cream and whatever fucked up shit Orochimaru likes on top," Jiraiya is wheedling, "he probably doesn't even know anything we don't already know. We're whooping their asses anyways, aren't we? We don't need to _torture_ -"

Orochimaru cuts in gently, silkily. "I can do this painlessly. My snakes can produce venom that will put him in a state of delirium. He'll never even know that he told us anything."

Jiraiya grips his shoulders, and the toad sage is so full of light that Orochimaru thinks he might shrivel away into nothingness, but for once he allows the contact, savors it as Jiraiya grins brighter than the sun. "Why didn't you just say so, big boy? Pop in that slippery slimey snake-magic and let's see what the bitch knows!"

"I need to be alone. The venom is applied through airborne delivery, and you two haven't built up a tolerance for it," Orochimaru says.

Jiraiya nods cheerily, but Tsunade narrows her eyes at him before the two of them leave him with their captive.

"You too much of a bitch to do this like a man?" the Iwa nin taunts. "Never tortured anyone, have you guys? I'm a trained jonin, you're not gonna be able to halfass your way through this, little man."

Orochimaru allows himself a thin smile. "Wasn't planning on it."

He is soon thankful for the noise-cancelling jutsu he performed when Jiraiya and Tsunade left. The man's screams reverberate like the thunder, and his blood falls like the rain.

 **Cheers! Again, let me know if you think this is better how it is or if I should continue it.**


End file.
